Website Visitors V Robots V Search Engines - The Web Design Challenge

When it comes to web design there are two main considerations, how website visitors will see it and how search engine robots will see it, and unfortunately what makes a website great for one may weaken its success with the other. Flashy graphics and navigation, words or images that move around and lead capture pages may all help grab the attention of someone looking at your site but these dynamic web features are often hated by search engines which may struggle to read them the way you wanted, and the resulting low position on the search engines may mean that very few people actually get to look at your website in the first place to see the fabulous design that you were so proud about.

I've seen some amazing websites with stunning designs, but a quick look at the source code behind it and it is a total mess, with excessive coding that a search engine would hate. Keeping your html or php code as clean and clear as you possibly can is important for getting a high search engine ranking, and try to stay clear oftoo much JavaScript as some browsers as well as search engine robots can struggle with it.

People look at a website much the same way they look at an advert or a poster, top left to bottom right, so this line of sight matters on your web page, which is why top and left navigation is the ideal to stick to, especially as right panel navigation can disappear from view altogether on a screen with limited size. But, the right panel is more search engine friendly because it comes after your page content and therefore means your keywords appear higher up in your website code. There are two ways around this conflict, first is to put keywords in your navigation button names, the more complicated is to set up your coding in such a way as for the main content to come immediately after the header and titles, and before any navigation. Speak to your website builder or web design company on how to get this done on your website.

Turning off the images on your browser for a moment is a clever way of seeing your website in the way that many search engine robots do, if there are bits on there that make no sense then you might want to make some changes.

Ultimately, however much you attempt to solve the problem between website visitor and robot, your web design is likely to always lean to one more that the other. If you have a new website, a new business or require a lot on new website visitors for your business then your choice is easy, you have to make your website as search engine friendly as you possibly can. For a more established business, one that will mostly be visits by returning customers who know where to find your site then how it appears to visitors will be the principal priority.

Article by Roy Strong of Strong Marketing Ltd

By: Roy Strong

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Roy Strong of Strong Marketing Ltd is qualified in web design and is a specialist in website promotion and website optimisation. For more information and a web design discount visit www.strong-marketing.co.uk/Web-Design-Discount.html